Long before embarking on a trip to both Kenya and Tanzania with my family I anguished over which lenses I should bring. In my bag I had a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8, Canon 24-70mm f/2.8, Canon 50mm f/1.4, Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro, Sigma 180mm f/3.5 macro, Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 II, and Canon 100-400 f/3.5-5.6 II. Wanting to travel as light as possible, I wanted to be able to pack everything into my F-stop Kenti bag. I decided to sell my Tokina 11-16mm lens and pick up the Canon 16-35mm f/4 IS, a 1.4x iii, and a Canon 7d mkii. This would allow me to bring two bodies, my Canon 5d mkiii and the new 7d mkii with the 16-35mm, 70-200mm, 100-400mm, and the 1.4x iii. I figured the 7d, 100-400mm, and the 1.4x would be glued together for much of the trip. The 5d would switch between the 16-35mm for landscapes and 70-200mm for when there wasn't enough light for the 7d combo. And I seem to have stuck to the game plan for the most part. I graphed out what proportion of photos I took with each lens in each of the parks that I visited:
I used the 100-400mm paired with the 7d for the majority of the photos that I took. The second most used lens was the 70-200mm paired with the 5d. That was true for all parks except for Maasai Mara. I used my 16-35mm quite a bit when we visited the Maasai village. In Tarangire I let my brother borrow my 70-200mm (with the 1.4x for half the day) which led to me not shooting the 70-200mm and using the bare 100-400mm. The 16-35mm was a great lens for all wide angle shots. When I was in Amsterdam before and after visiting Africa I was able to use it on the 7d and get an effective focal length of 25-56mm which was great for just walking around. I did end up bringing a flash (a 430exII), but I really only used it while walking around the lodges. I debated long and hard about bringing a dedicated macro lens, with the hopes of maybe doing some macro work at the lodges. Truth be told I was pretty busy downloading files, eating, and sleeping while back at the lodge. What little close to macro work I did was more than adequately handled by the 100-400 with 1.4x.
If I had to do it all again my dream kit would consist of:
Canon 1d x
Canon 7d mkii
Canon 11-24mm f/4
Canon 70-200mm f/2.8
Canon 600mm f/4
Canon 1.4x iii
It's nice to live in my dreams, but realistically I think I would maybe rent a 500mm f/4, bring the 100-400mm, and leave the 70-200mm at home. The 500mm f/4 would live on the 7d with extender (after sunrise) and other two lenses would spend time on my 5d. Below are a few photos from Lake Nakuru, Lake Manyara, and Amboseli.
If I had to do it all again my dream kit would consist of:
Canon 1d x
Canon 7d mkii
Canon 11-24mm f/4
Canon 70-200mm f/2.8
Canon 600mm f/4
Canon 1.4x iii
It's nice to live in my dreams, but realistically I think I would maybe rent a 500mm f/4, bring the 100-400mm, and leave the 70-200mm at home. The 500mm f/4 would live on the 7d with extender (after sunrise) and other two lenses would spend time on my 5d. Below are a few photos from Lake Nakuru, Lake Manyara, and Amboseli.